W O R L D

Thunderous Oscar applause for ‘The King’s Speech’
n Firth named best actor & Hooper best director
n Portman wins best actress for ‘Black Swan’
n Leo and Bale claim supporting honours
Los Angeles, February 28
British drama ‘The King’s Speech’, about George VI’s struggle to overcome his stammer, walked away with four major Oscars, including the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor at the 83rd Academy Awards.

(From left): Best Supporting Actor Christian Bale, Best Actress Natalie Portman, Best Supporting Actress Melissa Leo and Best Actor Colin Firth pose with their Oscars at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday. — AFP

Mubarak, family barred from leaving Egypt, assets frozen
Cairo, February 28
Cracking down on ousted president Hosni Mubarak, Egypt today barred him and his family from leaving the country and put a freeze on their financial assets, two weeks after a mass uprising threw out his regime.

Opposition forces close in on Tripoli
Cairo/Washington, Feb 28
Opposition forces today stormed close to the Libyan capital Tripoli for a final showdown with militia still loyal to beleaguered strong-man Muammar Gaddafi, as US and its European allies readied plans for a possible imposition of a 'no-fly zone' over the embattled country.

Thunderous Oscar applause for ‘The King’s Speech’ 
n Firth named best actor & Hooper best director
n Portman wins best actress for ‘Black Swan’
n Leo and Bale claim supporting honours

Los Angeles, February 28
British drama ‘The King’s Speech’, about George VI’s struggle to overcome his stammer, walked away with four major Oscars, including the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor at the 83rd Academy Awards.

On a night, which had no big surprises, the period drama beat out competition from nine other films to be crowned the Best Picture, also won an Oscar for David Seidler in the Best Original Screenplay category.

AR Rahman, Anwar return empty handed Indian musician AR Rahman’s hopes to repeat his 2009 double Oscar glory were dashed as he lost out in both the Best Original Score and Best Song categories at the 83rd Academy Awards here on Sunday. Rahman lost the Best Song trophy to Randy Newman who won for his composition ‘We Belong Together’ from ‘Toy Story 3’. Another contender, NRI editor Tariq Anwar, too failed to bag the Best Film Editing trophy for the British drama ‘The King’s Speech’, which went to Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter of ‘The Social Network’.

Directed by Tom Hooper, the Colin Firth starrer is about the British Monarch, who overcame his stuttering problem with the help of an unorthodox Australian speech therapist, to rally the nation through World War II.

Hooper thanked his mother for finding him the script for the movie after she was invited to a play reading. “She’s never been invited to a play reading her entire life before. She almost didn’t go because it didn’t sound exactly promising, but thank God she did. She rang me up after, said, Tom, I think I found your next film,” said the director.

Firth, popularly known as Mr Darcy since his ‘Pride & Prejudice’ days, started his acceptance speech by joking about how the award will help his career. “I have a feeling that my career just peaked,” the 50-year-old actor said.

Firth said that he feared that he may make a fool of himself by dancing onstage. “I’m afraid I have to warn you that I’m experiencing stirrings, somewhere in the upper abdominals, what are threatening to form themselves into dance moves,” he said.

“These urges joyous as they may be for me... would be extremely problematic if they make it to my legs before I get off stage,” he added.

The movie’s screenwriter, David Seidler, used his acceptance speech to jokingly thank Queen Elizabeth II, among others, as well as stutterers everywhere.

“...I accept this on behalf of all the stutterers throughout the world. We have a voice, we have been heard,” he said, repeating the key phrase from the movie.

Nominated in 12 categories, the film was pitted against Facebook movie ‘The Social Network’, which was in the race with seven nominations. The David Fincher movie, however, managed to win trophies in three categories-Best Adapted Screenplay, Original Score and Editing.

Christopher Nolan’s hi-tech thriller ‘Inception’ matched ‘The King’s Speech’ in the number count by bagging four Oscars in technical categories like Best Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects.

Natalie Portman won best actress for her role in disturbed ballerina in Darren Aronofsky’s dark thriller ‘Black Swan’.

An emotional Portman thanked everyone from her family, friends and fiance Bennjamin Milleipied to the make-up and cameraman of her film.

Boxing drama ‘The Fighter’ won two Oscars-best supporting actor for Christian Bale, and best supporting actress for Melissa Leo, who had both been frontrunners in their category. Leo and Bale, who played mother-son in the movie, were the first to win the golden statue for their supporting roles. — PTI

Mubarak, family barred from leaving Egypt, assets frozen

Cairo, February 28
Cracking down on ousted president Hosni Mubarak, Egypt today barred him and his family from leaving the country and put a freeze on their financial assets, two weeks after a mass uprising threw out his regime.

Egypt’s top prosecutor Abdel Magid Mahmud today ordered that financial assets inside the country of Mubarak and his family members be frozen, Al Jazeera reported.

“The decision today is acting on complaints received on wealth accumulated by former president and his family,” a statement from the prosecutor’s office said.

The move comes close on the heels of an order seeking the freezing of the family’s financial assets in foreign countries, following which the foreign ministry approached foreign governments and financial institutions.

The order also imposed a travel ban on the former president and his family pending further investigation.

The ban would apply to wife Suzanne, and his two sons Ala and Gamal, and their wives. — PTI 

Opposition forces close in on Tripoli